Steve M wrote:Are you still interested in an Atmos that won't work with Cumulus? (I sent you a message but got no reply. )

I had my monitor repaired and found an Atmos that boots but won't works with the old ULA or a NEW one. (With my other Armoses the Cumulus worked with a new ULA).

Oops sorry, completely forgot about that.. yes I'm still interested as it will be a good subject to test new hardware.There is still something unclear on why the original cumulus badly behave with some Orices. I start to have doubt on the potential explanation that Retromaster was giving and that the real problem is in the CPLD code, which is a bit fishy, I've discussed with a friend about the code and he agreed with me that some part are incorrect. But updating rev1 cumuluses in the field will not be easy at all :/

Steve if I can get your oric, I may be able to find more about this issue, so yes I'm still interested

I fear it's more timing oriented than ripple oriented as Retromaster suspected at the time, and the cause could be the way the CPLD handle the Phi2 clock, which is I think done incorrectly, because it could add some slight undesirable delays and the fact that some ULA solve the issue on some Oric but not all is showing that I'm may be right on that as the two main part for timings are the CPU and the ULA, as we have different version of the ULA (with unknown changes, I don't know it there really are different revision) and different 6502 form different manufacturer. The way the ULA use the memory bus is a bit awkward because it give the main clock for the 6502, and make assumption that the 6502 is perfect and use exacly the first third of the clocking time and there is no check on how Phi1 and Phi2 from the 6502 are behaving, there is no feedback.

I suppose that if the ULA was reading Phi2 and use it for the video output, it would make the Oric a bit more reliable.

Hi,

please remember I fixed the Cumulus / Atmos compatibility by changing IC12.
I wrote in 'Cumulus issues post'

"My third unit is fixed:

cumulus_compatibility_update3.png (9.95 KiB) Viewed 11373 times

Yet another DRAM changed, but I noticed on the 2 previous repairs, that the problem was fixed when I changed the last DRAM : IC12. So, tonight, I decided to change only IC12 on the 3rd unit. And it works!

change_IC12_.png (173.4 KiB) Viewed 11373 times

Only chance? I do not think so, because IC12 is D7 (bit 7), and D7 is a little bit special on Microdisc. This line can be driven, and maybe the Cumulus is 'more severe' than Microdisc (Cumulus schematic quickly examined but did not saw a specific problem)."

No the main change you've done is that the new DRAM chip does not have the exact same timing, output level etc.. than the original one, this is only a side effect.

The revision 2 of the cumulus is going to be really different from the original one and the issue we have with the revision 1 should no longer exist.

--

By the way, here are some picture of what the first prototype will look like:

Bonus as the Cumulus Rev2 and the Oric Mouse are to be plugged as near as possible of the Oric, are plugs perpendicularly and of course the oric case is just made to not help me, I needed to make a small PCB to raise the Expansion connector, and I've added a bonus feature to this PCB:

This board is made to power the Oric from au Li-Ion battery, and allow to charge the same battery using a standard microUSB cable/charger. The Cumulus Rev2 could be able to display information about the battery, and it's a possibility that the Oric will also have access to some informations.

And it should only have a small change once the Cumulus Rev 2 is going into it's final version to change a connector.

This full version of this board will be optional as it add to the final cost, but the version without the battery and related electronic will be optional but offered for either the OricMouse and the CumulusRev2.

THIS IS NOT AN AMPLIBUS and both the OricMouse and Cumulus Rev 2 does not need an amplibus.
If you need to a peripheral that need the use of the AmpliBus it will need to be connecter after this board and the OricMouse / Cumulus. An AmpliBus should not be put between either board and the Oric, they are made to have a direct access to the Oric Expansion Port.
By the way, this board is not made to be used with both a battery and a DC jack, you may damage either the board or the battery.

I will need to test, but it's possible that using a decent USB power supply will be able to power the Oric.

Last edited by Godzil on Fri Mar 11, 2016 5:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Hi,
this is Stefan from Berlin and I am very interested in this great Cumulus device. How can I be put on the order or preorder list for the next batch and how to proceed?
Thanks in advance for an answer.
Best regards
Stefan

I've corrected an error in the survey that I've should be done way before, I wasn't asking for an email address, so please for all of you, if you have kept the link to edit your answer, please go back to the survey and add your email address.

It will be used ONLY to contact you as soon as the I will come closer to the production.

Thanks!

PS: Things are not going as fast as I want on that project, for lots of personal reason, I hope that it will be back on track during this summer. No worries, the project is not going to be canceled

Last edited by Godzil on Wed Jun 08, 2016 3:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Hableman wrote:Hi,
this is Stefan from Berlin and I am very interested in this great Cumulus device. How can I be put on the order or preorder list for the next batch and how to proceed?
Thanks in advance for an answer.
Best regards
Stefan

Please fill the survey in the first message of this topic, it allow me to keep and track who want a cumulus.
Thanks!

PS: And if you don't have the link, no worry you can fill the survey again, I will check all entries and if there are duplicate I'll contact you before anything so no worries about duplicate entries

In the meantime though I have a question: what type of SD cards will be compatible (SD, SDHC, ??), and what maximum size can the SD card be??? Not that I plan on using an UHS-1 64 GB card, but these days it's quite hard to find an SD card smaller than 8 GB...

laurentd75 wrote:... And another order from me Godzil, I filled the survey 2 days ago!

Looking forward to it..

In the meantime though I have a question: what type of SD cards will be compatible (SD, SDHC, ??), and what maximum size can the SD card be??? Not that I plan on using an UHS-1 64 GB card, but these days it's quite hard to find an SD card smaller than 8 GB...

Many thanks for the wonderful projects you're doing, keep going!!

Cheers,
Laurent

SD and SDHC should be supported without any problem. (SDXC are basically SDHC formated as exfat, I can't promise support for ExFAT, but FAT32 will be OK)